The seventh category:
Al-mawqūf
This is any narration transmitted from a Companion, whether a statement, an action, or something similar, regardless of whether its chain is continuous or broken. When the term is applied to someone other than a Companion it must be qualified, as in the expression, “So-and-so halted it at al-Zuhrī,” and the like. Among the jurists of Khurāsān, a mawqūf report is called an athar (tradition) and a marfūʿ report a khabar (report), whereas the ḥadith scholars refer to everything as an athar.

Subsidiary issues

1. When a Companion says, “We used to say…” or “We used to do…,” if he does not link the practice to the time of the Prophet ﷺ, the report is mawqūf; if he does, the sound opinion is that it is marfūʿ. Imām al-Ismāʿīlī considered it mawqūf, but the first view is preferable. The same ruling applies to expressions such as: “We saw no harm in such-and-such during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ,” “while he was among us,” “in our midst,” or “they used to say,” “do,” or “see no harm in such-and-such during his lifetime ﷺ”—all are deemed marfūʿ. An example is al-Mughīrah’s report: “The Companions of the Messenger of Allah used to knock at his door with their fingernails.”

2. A Companion’s words, “We were commanded to do such-and-such,” “We were forbidden from such-and-such,” “Such-and-such is from the sunnah,” or “He instructed Bilāl to give the adhān in doubles,” and similar phrases, are all marfūʿ according to the correct view held by the majority. Others have maintained that they are not marfūʿ. There is no difference whether the Companion spoke these words during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ or afterward.

3. If, when mentioning a Companion, the narrator says, “He raises it,” “He traces it up,” “He conveys it,” or phrases it as in the report of al-Aʿraj from Abū Hurayrah—“You will fight a people with small eyes”—all such formulations and their like are counted as marfūʿ by the scholars.